OPINION

Inheritance

« Previous | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Next Page »

Pictured Recipe: Pear-Hazelnut Quick Bread

Oven-Fresh Bread Recipes

We would begin by dissolving cake yeast in warm milk in a giant stoneware bowl. Slowly, I added flour one cup at a time. After we had a gummy mixture of flour and liquid, we added salt, melted butter, more warm milk and flour, until the sticky mass could no longer be managed with the wooden spoon. Now it was ready to be turned out on the floured counter.

Little by little we kneaded in the geography of my flour hills, my grandmother’s strong arms and fingers pushing and rolling the dough in a practiced pattern. Soon the unruly blob transformed to a smooth well-mannered ball. During these times I learned flour had not always come easily dipped from the bin in the pantry. Instead, Grandma Clara earned it by cranking the arm of a hand-operated grain grinder into which was poured kernels of red winter wheat.

« Previous | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Next Page »

dotted line